What Is A Company? – When Structural Transformation Implies Conversing with Known Identities – Connections2Communities (C2C)

Brian Tawanda Manyati, 15/12/2020

When I created the WHAT IS A COMPANY WhatsApp group, I expected the title to provoke interest since my intention was to provoke engagement as well as to inspire and/or excite others to be interested in better understanding what a company is and is not.

I am a member of Connections2Communities (C2C) initiative and I am passionate about learning, unlearning and relearning concepts that have eluded me as an individual because the people I ordinarily interact with also are challenged on corporate issues and matters.

When I joined C2C and paid my dues, it was all in the hope that I will deepen and broaden my understanding of important matters including corporate issues.

It was always my expectation that when two or more people gather for a certain cause especially to learn and perfect their understanding on a problem, introducing, identifying and knowing each other would be a priority that helps in our choices and actions.

Since I am also a member of many WhatsApp groups in which I even hardly know who is who in the same group, I often wonder why people would join a group of persons yet assert privacy and confidentiality when in fact they need to build a bigger circle of possibilities.

I thought of highlighting this challenge because I have observed in many groups that people that we look up to like Mr Mawere get overwhelmed with messages from individuals in these groups who choose to flood his inbox with requests for one on one engagements.

This approach usually discourages people that we look up to from being part of such groups where there are people who not even participate but are only interested in fishing for contact details to self-promote themselves without any regard or interest in building community power.

As such, I believe that it in order for us to develop as communities, there is need for structural transformation even in our engagements on social media platforms so that our interaction is defined and guided by recognizable identification of parties involved.

Regrettably, this is not the case as the thread below demonstrates:

[12/15, 12:54] Mutumwa Mawere: Thanks. Are you following the THREADS?

The idea is that the group discussions on WHAT IS A COMPANY becomes a course on its own as should also be WHAT IS A LEADER but this requires focus and diligence.

At this stage, the people in the group who joined randomly are typical of the broader challenge faced in many democracies – apathy.

[12/15, 13:05] briantawandamanyati: True, I needed to sentiment similarly that mere failure of a voluntarily joining and highly likely outright independent individuals, to introduce selves, just their names and occupation/s exemplifies exactly the voter apathy faced in broader issues electoral. In corporate governance, they are fighting against this too, it’s called shareholder passivism though institutional shareholders lead at that bad practice which has been picked out as one of the chief reasons of most unexpected corporate collapses the world has had or is painfully experiencing. In politics, apathy is causing a politically active people online to be reigned over by a people they would have spent a long time berating, 5 years of throwing every brick bat, but commonly unable to act where it matters most, due to apathy. Yes indeed the behaviors on WhatsApp groups, in terms of a voluntarily joining set of individuals failing to structure ourselves as an organized online community is probably indicative of a major problem always faced by many democracies. Apathy, apathy, apathy, in governance it’s sloth.

[12/15, 13:10] Mutumwa Mawere: Imagine your comments were directed at real EXPERIENCES drawn from the group, what value would this be to third party actors who may wish to be part of it?

[12/15, 13:55] briantawandamanyati: In the C2C What is a Leader and What is a Company group, both in which so far I have learnt of a drag of feet when it comes to revealing our identities freely so as to know one another well and converse onward from the point of knowing one another. We sing transformational leadership but are unable to exercise it when given a chance. Most of us wait to see others fail, wait to see a group fail, wait to see an idea fail, we are unable to lead to let an idea rise us up and up and be never what we were yesterday.

I have told colleagues openly when one asked the reason why we should introduce ourselves first that: As Whatsapp group administrator, it is why I have been responding with the view cited below:

Name introductions, current occupation or trade, city and country of residence currently are in order for us to converse on C2C Corporate Literacy as a people who know one another. It is a transformational approach from what we have grown used to, it is different from conversing with strangers.

Another conversation was as highlighted below:

[11/27, 19:23] +263 78 379 0272: Kindly explain these ID numbers please, am not in the know

[11/27, 19:28] Mutumwa Mawere: The ID system is meant to allow us to debate and share with people we know. Imagine a human civilization without identity system.

[12/15, 13:58] Mutumwa Mawere: Is Identity generally a problem? So far people generally want to be private yet abuse others privately to get ahead without giving up anything to secure the right.

What is the menace in WhatsApp groups? Those who are perceived to be leaders are then targeted and abused in many closed loop groups like WhatsApp.

[12/15, 14:20] briantawandamanyati: Seeking self-identification goes against use of pseudonyms, that is one of the challenges especially if one is only on groups for out rightly only and only political activism. Many fear state security, how about separating it by making self-identity open, such that those working for state remain the only ones with hidden identities then everyone may know a bit better than guess and guess or be in fear of the unknown. At times it is only a form of deliberate lack on one’s part. Is it not that the likes of Hopewell Chin’ono known for political activism is using his personal name, and to those happier with his actions it is clear cut knowledge of him. So I wonder how pseudonym users gain belief from others even for causes they are firm about belief wise. After all our genuine identities are surrendered already unwillingly to servers, our mistrust that our names may be abused have never been material, after all those companies manning app servers know too well the extent of revenue loss from abuse of client personal information/s.

[12/15, 14:22] briantawandamanyati: What worked wonders yesteryears, which is pseudonym use, may not do so effectively today.

Brian and Mutumwa`s Chat Room, is a zwnews24 column on an interview series between businessman Mutumwa Mawere and 1873 Radio`s Brian Tawanda Manyati (BTM).*

The author, Brian Tawanda Manyati (BTM) is a Chartered Governor and Accounting Technician and contactable on:

LinkedIn – briantawandamanyati

Email: [email protected]

+263772815211

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